OPERATION: 411 ON UNIVERSAL ENROLLMENT
My location: One Newark Universal Enrollment
Center, 7/13/15, 10:35 am, 301 W. Kinney St.
As I approached the entrance to the courtyard, a security guard
greeted me pleasantly. Mind you, in the past I would get thrown out or not even
let in. Luckily a little weight gain, a beard and hat did the trick. Going
incognito is now what parents have to do to investigate the district and see
what is going on. I felt like a secret agent about to infiltrate enemy
territory. At the door, a smiling Newark Public Schools employee named Brittney,
who had about three NPS security guards around her, greeted me. She asked me my
reason for coming and I told her I was there to find out more about enrolling
my 4-year-old in the pre-school across the street from me. She told me to enter
the first classroom and gave me small card with a number 1 on it. I WAS
IN! Easy Breezy.
The classroom was arranged like a Motor Vehicle Center. You had
to put your name on a list at a long desk separating the people from the
registration stations. I entered a fictitious name. I was number 42, although
there appeared to be more than 42 people seated. I overheard some of the
parents saying, “This is ridiculous!” “Why can’t I go right to the school and
register?” “Why are they making us go through this whole process?” I gently and
quietly leaned over to the mom sitting next to me and said, “It feels like the
DMV.” She told me this was her third time to the center and was told that she
would need to come down in person to find a match for her child. As with the
tension from the patrons who are at the will of the Division of Motor Vehicles clerks,
so were these parents! When their number was called, they sat at a station with
an NPS employee and were told where their children would be going to school in
the fall. The process was definitely more structured and calculated than
past enrollment sessions.
I got up and went out to Brittney and told her that I didn’t think
I had time to wait, and did she know how many preschool seats were left? She
said, “No” with that pretentious NPS smile they are trained to give. I then
asked where the rest room was and was told to head down the hall. GREAT! Just
what I wanted to see: what was going on in the other rooms! Heading to the
restroom, I saw a familiar face that possibly would blow my cover. It was Dr.
Lauren Wells, Chief Education Officer for Mayor Ras Baraka. She said, “Hey
Frank!” I was hoping she would not say anything to the NPS staff about who I
was! I quickly headed to the restroom. On my way, I made sure to look in every
room. Each one represented a grade or group of grades with the same scene:
parents signing in, waiting for their name to be called and sitting at desks
with NPS employees getting their placements. The classrooms were guarded with
at least two security guards. If you didn’t have that little card from Brittney
with a number on it, you were not allowed in the classroom.
On my return from my restroom
trip, I passed what looked to be the school’s main office. All the main NPS
players were inside including Ruben Roberts, Executive Director of Community Affairs and
Engagement, and Vanessa Rodriguez, Chief Talent Officer. There
were also a few other district staff members outside speaking with parents. As
I slowed my stroll past the conversations, I could hear parents were very
upset. Their children were not being placed where they wanted them to be educated.
One staff member told a parent, “If you are going to talk to me in a calm
manner, I will speak with you, but if you get loud I will not!” The parent said,
“I am pissed off and want my kids to go where I say they should go, not you!”
This is typical of the upset and angry conversations that have been going on between
Newark parents and the Newark Public Schools central office staff for the last
year and a half. Vanessa Rodriguez walked out of the office, passed the upset
parents and headed down the hall to the Pre-K enrollment class I originally was
in. I followed right behind her. She relieved the staff member and began assisting
a bilingual family looking for placement. In the 30 minutes I stood there, I
did not hear one single parent called to a station. .
Dr. Lauren Wells entered the
room. I knew she was there to get the info and I wanted to know as well. We as
parents need to let our fellow parents know! All the district staff immediately
perked up and automatically went on alert. I moved closer to get within earshot
of what was being said. Dr. Wells was asking all the same questions my parent
team was messaging me to find out: How was the process going? How were families
being treated? How many available seats were opened in the district? What did
the numbers look like?
I followed her out of the room.
I have always had respect for Dr. Wells because she has always treated me with
respect. I told her I was here to get the 411 and she gave me a smile. I asked
if she knew how many seats were available, but she didn’t know. She asked
Brittney and got the standard, “I don’t know” reply. They surely get paid a lot
for not knowing anything!
Dr. Wells was then met by Ruben
Roberts. He was dressed in his best linen suit and he immediately gave the
canned district responses. There was a bulletin board by the Pre-K room with
postings that showed how many seats were available in each school. It was hard
to take a snapshot of it as security and NPS district employees were guarding
the info. Dr. Wells asked if the list was accurate with numbers and Roberts
said that it changed frequently. She asked if the information was online for
the public and he said, “The list is just for us, the numbers are changing all
the time.” When Dr. Wells asked if families were being helped, he responded, “They
are being placed, but it may not be where they hoped to be placed.”
Dr. Wells and I walked out
through the courtyard of the Enrollment Center together. I again told her that
I was here to get a report for the team and parents we serve. I said, “Looks
kind of organized, better than it did in previous enrollment sessions.” Dr.
Wells responded, “Organized…Organized Chaos.” We agreed with a smile. I wished
Dr. Wells a good day, got in my car, flipped my #PARENTPOWER t-shirt the right
way and headed home.
It is a shame that the city
can’t even get the district to give us information that should be available to
the public. When the deal was made that Chris Cerf would be the bargaining tool
used for start of return to local control, we should have had an immediate
moratorium on the One Newark Program. The district should have returned to
having parents register their child at their local neighborhood schools.
Remember those long registration lines outside the schools? Those lines don’t
look too shabby right now. We as parents have to educate ourselves on how we
are being treated by the district. A parent should not have to go incognito
into an enrollment center just to ask some questions from district employees. That’s
what they get those big salaries for, not for standing around saying, “I don’t
know” and giving out hall passes. What “talent” does it take to do that? I
guess I will have to continue to go incognito to find out the process and get
information to my parent team and the parents we serve. The district should
know that there are many of us and no matter how hard they try to keep it
secure…WE WILL INFILTRATE!
#PARENTPOWER
